Tension between Fulton County’s wants and its resources boiled over Wednesday as county commissioners prepared to discuss the 2024 budget.
The budget summary from County Manager Dick Anderson pegs the proposed budget at $1.34 billion altogether, including a $917 million General Fund. That’s about the same total as the final approved budget for this year.
Anderson’s summary says the county has no additional money coming with which to increase its services next year. Indeed, nearly 17% of the coming budget will be covered by reserve funds.
County staff had proposed a property tax rate hike to cover the influx of budget requests. But commissioners voted to keep the tax rate steady, meaning departments had to scale back their requests.
Commissioners ultimately put off discussing specifics of the budget until their Dec. 6 meeting after Atlanta Judicial Circuit Public Defender Maurice Kenner made a pitch for more attorneys.
That set off Commissioner Bob Ellis, who said budget pleas directly to commissioners “makes a mockery of our budget process.” County staff had already heard everyone’s presentations while assembling the budget, but there are constant attempts to circumvent the staff evaluation by asking commissioners directly, he said.
“Should we invite all 50 departments down here to do the same thing?” Ellis said angrily.
Commission Chair Robb Pitts agreed.
“We do have a process in place. We violate our own process,” Pitts said.
But Commissioner Natalie Hall said commissioners were elected to hear everyone out.
Commissioner Khadijah Abdur-Rahman blamed other unnamed commissioners, saying they gave soothing responses to departments and to taxpayers alike, leaving budget staff caught in a contradiction.
Abdur-Rahman, also fired up, said everyone must be treated the same and that cuts must be made across the board.
Ellis apologized to Kenner, saying he wasn’t angry at him personally, but at general violations of the budget process and at Hall for inviting Kenner to speak.
“You’re the one that should be getting heat, not Mr. Kenner,” Ellis said to Hall.
Hall said Kenner asked to speak, and that if anyone asks to be added to the commission’s discussion agenda, “that’s part of the process too.”
Anderson’s budget summary says the county needs to focus on maintaining current levels of service, keeping existing commitments but not expanding them. For example, Fulton will fund the clinic Morehouse School of Medicine is opening in East Point to help compensate for the closure of two hospitals that served the area, but won’t be able to further increase funding for health care in southern Fulton County, he wrote.
The proposal includes $462.8 million for justice and public safety: continuing jobs to reduce a major court backlog that are currently funded by the federal pandemic relief program, building a new public safety training center near Fulton Industrial Boulevard, and improving security at all county buildings.
That budget section also includes money for the overcrowded and deteriorating county jail on Rice Street.
“We will continue investing in resources for inmate outsourcing to address jail overcrowding, and increased resources for the jail bridging program including inmate medical services, inmate and jail staff food services, public relations, and tower staffing,” Anderson wrote.
Infrastructure and economic development are expected to get $337 million, including for operating the soon-to-open new animal shelter and starting work on a developmental disability health center in south Fulton County.
And another item related to the jail: commissioners tentatively plan to replace the current jail with a much larger one by 2029, at a cost of $1.7 billion. A step toward that is in the proposed budget.
“Working through the South Fulton Municipal Regional Jail Authority, we plan to issue $100 million in bonds to begin the design and program management for the planned replacement jail,” Anderson wrote.
The “open and responsible government” category is slated for $266.7 million. That covers funding four major elections next year and a possible runoff, and giving county employees a 5% raise.
During the meeting’s public comment period a procession of people from arts organizations asked commissioners not to cut their county funding. And a half-dozen uniformed officers from the Fulton County Marshal’s Department pleaded for pay increases, saying their starting pay is lower than for surrounding law enforcement agencies, making it difficult to attract job applicants; that even veteran officers must work side jobs to make ends meet; and that without more personnel marshals will never catch up on their assigned duties.
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